for VDI with VMware Horizon View VMware Horizon View and X-IO

for VDI
with VMware Horizon View
Validated | Scalable | Flash-Enabled
VMware Horizon View and X-IO
Horizon View is used to deliver virtual desktops as a service
in a broad range of enterprise use cases, enabling the best
user
experience
for
maximum
productivity.
IT
administrators can easily provision and customize the
environment to comply with corporate policy and end-user
needs. Desktop virtualization with Horizon View enables
organizations to do more with less and adopt a usercentric, flexible approach to computing. By decoupling
applications, data, and the operating system from the
endpoint—and by moving these components into the
datacenter, where they can be centrally managed in your
VMware & X-IO Test Results
About the design. VMware and X-IO tested one ISE 740
hybrid storage array in a 1,500-user VMware Horizon View
environment,
with
1,500
medium-workload
users
simulated by Login VSI’s industry-standard workload
cloud—desktop and application virtualization offers IT a
simulator.
more streamlined, secure way to manage users and
These
provides agile, on-demand desktop services.
empirically, that an X-IO ISE 740 hybrid storage array is
standard
and
stringent
tests
demonstrate,
more than sufficient to support 1,500, highly concurrent,
Horizon View users.
X-Pod for VDI
X-Pod is a validated reference architecture for a converged
infrastructure solution designed to deliver a repeatable,
high-performance virtual desktop infrastructure.
This reference architecture details the extensive testing that
 Sustained, 15,000 write-oriented IOPS, during the
testing, with latency below 5 milliseconds
 This reference architecture was capable of achieving
97% concurrency for 1,500 users, at which time the
server resources were fully consumed. The low-latency
X-IO has performed and provides guidance for the
response times indicate that the ISE 740 still had plenty
performance requirements of various operations based on
of performance left to offer.
the X-Pod core components of Cisco UCS server and
networking hardware together with the flash-enabled
Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) systems. This validated
testing demonstrates that this solution is capable of
delivering a high-performance desktop experience at up
to 97% concurrency.
 1,500 desktops were booted in less than 16 minutes,
resulting in over 40,000 IOPS, with read latency under
4 milliseconds
Key X-IO Benefits

X-Pod is a validated, converged reference architecture

Continuous Adaptive Data Placement (CADP) software
runs continuously, analyzes host I/O, and automatically
places hotspot data onto SSD as frequently as every 5
seconds.

The ISE Hybrid Storage Array’s out-of-box, frame-free
scalability future-proofs large-scale VDI investments
through a modular design

Cost effective, with industry leading lowest total cost of
ownership (TCO)

Delivers rated performance at maximum capacity for
five years, with little or no service intervention

ISE Manager takes care of the vAdmin with a simple
and intuitive management interface that is highly
integrated with the hypervisor and virtual machines
ISE Manager Suite
Knowing that VDI workloads can have a number
of performance profiles, X-IO approached this
testing knowing that the linked clone model
would provide great capacity management.
Linked clone architectures however, require a
high degree of write IOPS (80%) that need to be
serviced very quickly to maintain a great user
experience. The ISE 740 delivered over 15,000
IOPS for 1,500 desktops in under 5 milliseconds.
40 to 100 IOPS per user are not uncommon for
Boot Storm
boot storms and at a maximum read latency of
under 4 milliseconds, the ISE 740 based
solution, demonstrates predictable high
performance.
X-IO delivers low latency at a low TCO,
demonstrating conclusively that in this Horizon
View environment the ISE 740 performs as well
as flash-based arrays, and a fraction of the cost.
For more details of this test and its associated reference architecture, visit
http://xiostorage.com/applications/desktop-virtualization/
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